Has anyone had any experience with the upgrade to HEI from point. I was looking at the pertronix kit in one of the catalogs and was wondering how it works.
If anyone has tried any others let me know how it went! My email is rhhanson63@hotmail.com
Bob, I was talking to a friend of mine about the pertronix set up for my car. He tried it in his car and said it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I look at it this way, it looks original because it is hidden in the stock distributor, you don't have to worry about blowing a condenser, and you don't have to pull the distributor to install it. Seems like it's the way to go. I'm going to order one for myself here real soon.
Converted mine to HEI. The car has never missed a beat. Fires everytime. It's really simple and inexpensive to make the switch. I bought a junk yard HEI($10), recurve kit, cap, wires, rotor, and coil from Summit for about $45. So the conversion cost me about $55. Then you simply change the resistance wire from the fuse block to the distributor to a copper wire to get 12 volts to the coil and your done....
Drew. Sounds like an easy change over but from what heard you can't run your original tach on the HEI. They say you have to change over to an electronic tach. I'm not sure how it works with the pertronics.
Firebob, it is a really simple change over. I didn't have a hood tach, so I don't know about the originals. The HEI does have an electronic tach output, so if the originals weren't electronic, you're right that would have to be changed.
I talked to the Tech Dept at Pertronix about how the Ignitor system affects the factory tachs. The guy said it should still work but the tach may or may not be accurate (50 - 50 chance). Having the tach calibrated should fix the problem. He also said that he has a number for a Pontiac guy that specializes in factory tachs, gages, accessories and stuff like that. Here's the Pertronix Tech Dept number: 1-800-827-3758.
Yeah that kind of information SCARES me. Might, or should be alright just don't cut it for me. I am not willing to hook up my original stacked gauges and tach and take the chance of blowing it out because of some misinformation. Install a $120 worth of dist and coil and have it cost me $1500 for a new tach.
I'm gonna replace my points with a pertronix kit. I've heard from some guys here at work that I may want to use a "hotter" coil. Not sure what they meant by hotter and didnt ask by the time we were done talking.
So
1) Why would I want a better coil?
2) How would you guys rate the pertronix over points? What improvements have you seen?
I had a 75 Trans Am that I switched from points to a system like the Pertronix and I thought it was great. I had a noticable increase in power. I set it up once and never had to mess with it again.
I think a "hotter" coil means one with a lower resistance. The Pertronix Flame Thrower system can come with a coil if you order one.
Check out : vintageperformance.com for a decent rundown of the Pertronix system and applications.
I got a pontiac 350 HEI distributor from eBay. (that's all I remember from the description) Other than it had "been gone through and freshened up". Again, not sure all what that meant either. But it was cheap (I think only $20 or so) and came with new cap and rotor in boxes. I kept the #'s off those parts in case I need to replace. Don't know what car it came off of?? They were Borg warner parts? (thought that was only Ford?) Anyways, I put it in and it works fine. I have a repro hood tach and it works it perfect. Athough I think I'm off a tooth on the distributor because I need to adjust the timing a bit more and the vacuum advace deal hits the intake.
Couple questions for you guys (email private or put here doesn't matter)
>Will all pontiac 350 HEI distributors work on a 68 pontiac 350? >Would it (can it) use Borg Warner cap & rotor? >Anyway to tell what its out of? I can get numbers if there are any when I re-stab it.
As long as the Distributor came off a Pontiac motor it can be used on one. The 350, 400, and 455 HEI is interchangeable and can even be put on 326, 389, or 428s.
Borg Warner makes caps and rotors for all the major manufacturers....ie. GM, Ferd, Chrysler.
I believe you can get a general idea of what it came out of by the numbers. I'm sure there are others here that know better than I about deciphering Distributor numbers.
Uh oh... the guy I bought my 67 from included a HEI distributor with the engine and i'm not sure what car it came from.... I either need to find out what it came from or find another one.
I went to a junk yard and got the first HEI distributor I came to out of a later model Pontiac and installed it in my 67 400, and it worked fine. When my bird was ready for the road I started having over heating problems and change everything in the cooling system with no luck. So I started checking timing and found out mine wasn't advancing and the time was set very high so it would run good. When I took the distributor apart much to my surprise the cool distributor without the vacuum hose had no mechnical advance, it had no advance at all. I think it is electronically advanced. I installed an HEI with vacuum advance and the bird stopped over heating and I found all that great Pontiac power I had been looking for. So I can't say all Pontiac distributor are the same, but all will work. Hope this helps all.
I went the "U-pull-and save" route for my HEI (came out of a 301). Works better than the worn out points dist. One problem with late 70's HEI's is they only had 7-9 degrees of mech advance and 20+ degrees of vacuum advance. Can you say detonation? Re-curve and add an adjustable vacuum adv. Pontiac guru, Jim Hand speaks wellof the HEI. My orig dist was rusted around the weights and not reusable.
